1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to seaweed and treated seaweed feed supplements for mammals and poultry wherein the host exhibits enhanced immune response. In another aspect, the invention relates to the introduction of seaweed supplement directly to mammal and poultry feed as well as introduction of grazing animals to plants and grasses, which have been pre-treated with seaweed extract. In still another aspect, the invention relates to seaweed feed supplement, which enhances the host immune system for periods beyond cessation of seaweed supplement introduction to the host diet.
2. Description of Related Art
Seaweeds have been used through antiquity in crop production and as early as the 1950""s, evidence of plant growth hormones in seaweed was reported. Seaweed is now recognized as a source of plant growth regulators and has been demonstrated to have activity that includes cytokinin, auxin, gibberellin, and idole acidic acid. Seaweed has also long served as feed for domestic and wild animals. Some even graze on seaweed growing on rocky beaches and floating in the ocean water. Seaweeds have been dried and sold as a meal product to be mixed with other feed stuffs. The value of seaweed has been generally attributed to the fact that it is low in carbohydrate and proteins and rich in trace elements; including B,D,E and other vitamin precursors including beta-carotene; and various growth hormones. Previous seaweed products are not always uniformly effective because of various contents of the trace elements and vitamins in other compounds due to the time and location of harvest and the method of processing. Therefore, seaweed products have not always provided significant reliable benefit to the host being fed the product.
Bacterial, fungal, viral and other disease causing agents inflict mammals including man, other mammals, plants, insects and poultry. The prevention and control of, for example, diseases have important health and economic implications. Diseases contribute to infections in humans and other mammals including common colds, herpes and cancer and the importance of their control is obvious. Also important is control of agent diseases in mammals and poultry for economic reasons as well as the ability of such mammals and poultry to become disease reservoirs or carriers, which facilitates the spreading of diseases to other host including humans. Plant diseases have been known to have a disruptive effect on the cultivation of fruit trees, tobacco and various vegetables as well as the utilization of plant leaves and grasses by grazing animals.
The prevention and control of diseases is thus of prime importance to man, other mammals and poultry; considerable research has been devoted to anti-disease measures. Prior research efforts have described water soluble extracts from marine red algae selected from the group consisting of Turnerella mertensiana, Schizymenia epiphytic, Turnerella pennyi and mixtures thereof as effective to inhabit the growth of herpes simplex virus, Type 1 and Type 2 and herpes zoster and to relieve the pain caused by infection attributable to such viruses.
Applications of materials containing high concentration of hormones reduced plant stress and enhance plant tolerance to drought and salinity. Seaweed, an excellent source of cytokinins and auxins has been associated with enhanced root development of grasses grown under stress environments. Concentrations of antioxidants increase significantly in response to exogenous seaweed treatments. Increase of these antioxidants had been correlated with photosynthetic capacity of plants subject to environmental stress. Advantages utilizing seaweed products have been defined as increasing the xe2x80x9clivabilityxe2x80x9d of animals including livestock and poultry fed the seaweed supplement along with various other additives. When animals, mammals and poultry are grown for food production, there is generally a loss of a small but constant percentage of the animals prior to bringing the animals to the market which may be due to lack of nutrients, sickness, improper growing temperature and the like. This means that the feed eaten prior death of the animals and other costs expended on the animals, which do not survive, are wasted. In addition, animals consuming costly feed for fattening which have lowered immune systems also waste the cost of the feed and decreases the weight gains of poultry and mammals and thus their economic value.
It has now been found that seaweed materials, both meal and water-soluble extract forms of seaweed enhance immune responses in mammals and poultry when introduced into the host diet either directly or indirectly through plants including forages.
Seaweed feed supplements have been found to enhance immune response in mammals. Various seaweed plant classifications have been utilized in agriculture and include such plant orders as: (1) Laminariaceae; (2) Fucaceae; and (3) Gigartinaceae. Ascophyllum nodosum is the most widely used form of seaweed utilized in agriculture and belongs to the order Fucaceae. Other important genus groups include Laminaria, Durvillea, Macrocystis, Chondrus, and Ecklonia.
Ascophyllum nodosum , the most researched seaweed for agricultural purposes is found growing in the littoral zone, that is, the coastline between high and low tides, of the North Atlantic Ocean extending from Nova Scotia to Norway. In accordance with the present invention, seaweed meal and an extract of seaweed, which is water soluble, derived by alkaline hydrolsis extraction procedures, are utilized with positive results. Seaweed meal that is dried, ground as well as extract seaweed has been utilized in accordance with the invention. Both products are commercially available, stable, with a sustainable quality assurance supply available.
The invention as directed to use of seaweed, for example, Ascophyllum nodosum to improve immune response in mammals and poultry. The seaweed is harvested from the ocean and ground as an intact meal which can be exposed to alkaline hydrolsis extraction procedures providing a water soluble feed ingredient with known mineral composition and plant growth regulating activity. When the seaweed is included as a pasture treatment or feed ingredient for ruminant and non-ruminant animals, poultry, and other mammals, the immune function is enhanced and health of the host is improved. Studies show sheep that grazed treated forage had increased blood levels of vitamin A and selenium indicating that the anti-oxidant activity had been increased in the host as well as in plants that the mammals grazed. In addition, influence of the seaweed extract on steers that grazed forage infected with an endophyte fungus, known to result in several animal disorders, provided further evidence that the steers had improvement in their immune function. Steers that grazed the fungus infected forage had depressed immune function that treatment with seaweed was able to reverse and to restore normal levels. Further, the improved immune function acheived by the cattle grazing on the aforementioned pasture was retained through feedlot finishing even without continuation of the seaweed supplement being furnished to the diet. Weaned pigs were fed different rates of seaweed extract or seaweed meal. These pigs were stressed by exposure to disease present within the swineherd at the time of the experiment. The seaweed extract and meal were effective in improving the health of the pigs resulting in increased growth rates, feed intake and feed efficiency. No pigs fed the extract or meal died while three deaths occured within the control group.
Improvement in immune function for mammals and poultry has large implications in the field of mammal and poultry health. Improvement in immune function in swine may well indicate applications to human health and immune function as well. Improved carcass characteristics were shown by cattle, which grazed on forage treated with seaweed extract. The monetary benefits to the industry will be significantly impacted in the positive from producing foraging animals wherein the forage has been treated by seaweed extract. Furthermore, the seaweed treatment of fescue, for example, infected with the fungus can at least offset the negative effects of immune function and will improve animal performance during the final finishing periods i.e. feedlots. Since fescue is a major pasture grass in much of the livestock producing areas of the eastern U.S., the implications are far reaching.
The invention was also productive in providing grazing lambs improved antioxidant function, daily gains and total gains as compared to control lambs grazing non-treated pastures.
Other aspects or features of the invention will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.